Julie Dibens continued with her assault on the XTERRA series with a second place in Saipan today. She led out the swim with Olivier Marceau on her toes and held that lead over the womens field for much of the bike, finally being caught by Renata Bucher in the last few kilometres. The bike course was brutal with some super steep climbs and with the sun beating down all the time. Julie was able to hold he place through the run, gaining on the flatter sections but dropping back on the technical and tricky ups and downs.

Renata Bucher took the win with Julie second, Jamie Whitmore in third and Sybille Matter was fourth.

In the mens race Olivier Marceau took the win by around 8 minutes ahead of Sam Gardener with Andrew Noble in third. Jim McConnel won his age group despite crashing and getting a flat tyre. Full results and a race report on the XTERRA website: www.xterraplanet.com

1. Olivier Marceau - Switzerland - 2:27:16
2. Sam Gardner - Great Britain - 2:37:04
3. Andrew Noble - Australia - 2:39:56
4. Thomas Richard - France - 2:49:43
5. Margus Tamm - Estonia - 2:52:59

1. Renata Bucher - Switzerland - 2:45:08
2. Julie Dibens - Great Britain - 2:48:57
3. Jamie Whitmore - California, USA - 2:51:24
4. Sibylle Matter - Switzerland - 2:56:03
5. Mami Saito - Japan - 3:09:01

UPDATE: there's now a photo gallery online for the Saipan race: http://web.mac.com/xterraphoto/iWeb/Xterra/Saipan%2007.html